


With a Little Help from his Friends

by Rhianona



Series: au-bingo [6]
Category: Predators, Torchwood
Genre: Gen, au_bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-05
Updated: 2011-03-05
Packaged: 2017-10-16 03:12:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/167799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhianona/pseuds/Rhianona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack finds himself on a planet where he is the prey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With a Little Help from his Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the au_bingo prompt: Other: Aliens
> 
> No real spoilers as it takes place in some nebulous future in _Torchwood_ and doesn't really involve much more than the premise of the film.
> 
> Warning: Insanity

Jack loses his mind sometime after his three hundredth death. Of course, by then his psyche is so shattered that he doesn’t know how often he’s died on this damned planet. He just knows he’s been here, been hunted by the creepy humanoid aliens for months on end. They keep killing him and he keeps coming back.

He doesn’t know what they are. Isn’t even sure how he got wherever he is. The nights he’s able to look towards the sky don’t reveal anything to him that he didn’t already know.

The last thing he remembers is hunting Weevils in Cardiff when he was swept up in some sort of transmat beam. He doesn’t remember what happened next, but he woke while in free fall and landed in a forest. He’s not the only human here either. He landed with a group of eight; he’s the only one still alive. The rest were killed within three days of their arrival.

Technically, so had he. He just got back up. The others weren’t so lucky… or maybe they were.

The aliens have some sort of cloaking device. They stalk their prey — because that’s what the humans are and don’t let anyone else tell you differently — and then take them out. Doesn’t matter how many traps you put out or what grand plans you put together: they see through them. What’s worse, even if you succeed it doesn’t really matter. A day later, or if you’re lucky, a week, a whole new group gets sent down to hunt and the process starts all over again.

Jack’s currently holed up in a tree. His coat has been torn to shreds. Ianto would disapprove. He hates when Jack ruins the coat, even though his original coat was lost months ago. He scavenges, takes clothing, food, guns, and ammo from those who are killed. Still, Ianto does like the coat, and even if it’s not his style he makes a note to apologize and take the young Welshman out to dinner to make up for his carelessness.

He’s forgotten that Ianto died three years ago.

He munches on a few berries he found and takes a sip from the canteen he salvaged from some military bloke who hadn’t lasted very long. That’s what he does now. Salvages supplies. Hunts for food. Tries to stay alive for another hour, another day, another week.

Sometimes it works. Most of the time it doesn’t and Jack finds himself gasping back to life, his clothes ruined or torn or bloody.

During the Year-That-Never-Was, the Master had tried to kill Jack in as many ways as he could without repeating a particular method. Unless he was angry — then, he just used his evil laser screwdriver and Jack knew no more.

Dying then, being killed over and over again had meant something though and he had clung to his sanity with his fingernails. He had kept the Master busy and that meant the Time Lord couldn’t focus his attention on Francine or Clive or Tish or the Doctor. It had kept them safe and he had clung to the knowledge that all the pain and death he experienced had meant _something_.

This doesn’t mean a thing. He dies. He revives. He dies again. He revives again. And so it happens over, and over, and over again.

“The newest group’s landed,” Ianto comments, leaning nonchalantly against a nearby tree. He’s wearing Jack’s favorite suit — the ‘cute suit’ — and looks delectable.

“So I’ve heard,” Jack leers. “Can think of better things to do than worry about them.” Ianto rolls his eyes and suddenly appears next to Jack on the tree limb on which he’s perched.

“I’m sure you can, sir,” he says. And Jack smirks at the look in his eyes. “Maybe this time you can get off the planet?”

“I’ve tried, it never works,” he complains. He tries to pull Ianto towards him but the Welshman slips away from his grip like vapour. “Ianto!”

“Jack, it shouldn’t be too hard to use your wristband to figure out where their ship is,” Tosh tells him. She looks out of place — almost as much as Ianto — with her smart skirt and blouse ensemble, glasses perched on her nose and her PDA in her hand. “If you calibrate the sensors just right, you can jam the sensors so they won’t blow you up again.”

“Have to find the ship first,” Jack says, pouting a bit. He wants sexy fun time with Ianto, though he doesn’t mind if Tosh joins in with them.

“Use your wrist strap,” Suzie says, impatience coloring her voice. “It can lock on the energy source.”

“And then away you fly. This time without getting blown up,” Owen adds his own advice.

“You have to try,” Ianto says and he moves close so close to Jack that they are practically touching.

“Meet up with the new arrivals and see if they can help you,” Gwen suggests, hands shoved into her denims. That’s Gwen, always looking for that human connection.

“They’d make good bait,” Suzie says and nods in agreement. “They can draw out these aliens.”

“Suzie!” Gwen and Tosh scold. Ianto just rolls his eyes and Owen grunts.

“Have you figured out what they are yet?” Gwen asks Jack.

“No. I’ve never heard of them before,” Jack says. “They’re sort of like the Hoix but deadlier and definitely more intelligent.”

“I like their tech,” Suzie says. “That gun you use has a nice rate of fire and you don’t need to worry about the ammo.”

“Torchwood’s never seen the like,” Ianto says. “Or at least it’s not in the database.”

Jack finishes his food and leans against the tree trunk and thinks. His eyes are dazed with madness, his hair matted with blood, his face streaked with mud. “Do you think I can do it this time?”

“I think you don’t have a choice,” Ianto says. “You need to get out while you’re still able to think.”

The others nod their agreement.

“Where should I go?” he asks and tries to hide the wince at how plaintive he sounds.

“Find your Doctor, Jack,” Gwen says, smiling a sad smile that only barely hides the gap in her teeth. “He can help.”

Even Ianto agrees and Jack knows they’re probably right. He stows his canteen, does his best to brush off the dirt and leaves that cover the coat that’s not _his_ coat, but one he picked up along the way, and checks his weapon before he jumps down from his tree.

He flicks open his wrist strap and programs it to locate what can only be the alien’s ship. He fixes the direction in his mind and nods. “Alright, kids. It’s time to go,” he says. Striding forward, he heads out, his team spread out behind him. He knows they’ll watch his back and keep him safe.

And maybe this time he’ll succeed.


End file.
